MiDA Empowers 300 Females

The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA)says that it will enroll over 300 females from tertiary institutions under its Gender and Social Inclusion Directorate to equip them with modern skills needed to work in the energy sector.

Dr Cherub Antwi-Nsiah, Director of Gender and Social Inclusion Unit at MiDA, who announced this on Wednesday in Accra to the media, said the programme is also aimed at attracting more women into the energy sector to take courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

“We want to equip them to be very attractive candidates in the job market and there are supervisors to ensure that they do what they are there to do. But in addition, we are also going to give them leadership skills, ethics, time management, etc to create awareness about discrimination against women at the workplace,” she noted.

Dr Antwi-Nsiah said the first batch of 50 engineering students, selected from some five public institutions, would start their two-month mentoring programmes with selected partner institutions that are partnering MiDA to implement the Ghana Power Compact, also known as Compact II.

The students would be selected from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Accra Technical University, Koforidua Technical University, Kumasi Technical University and Akwatia Technical Institute.

The Compact II projects and initiatives, she said, were geared towards addressing power supply constraints in Ghana.

Under this, MiDA is mandated to ensure equitable access to energy by using targeted approaches to take account of gender disparities in access to credit, land and information, affordable connection fee for vulnerable groups and women to own businesses.

It also seeks to pursue electrification of social infrastructure that offers high benefits to women and promote productive use of energy for men and women.

Female students from the selected tertiary, technical and vocational institutions would be enrolled under a pilot scheme billed to begin soon.

Their number would be increased to 100 for every year until 2021 when programme comes to an end.

Dr Antwi-Nsiah revealed that the first batch of female interns would be sent to public institutions, including the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ghana Standards Authority and the Energy Commission, Ghana which are partnering MiDA to implement Compact II that has $300 million to expend.

Most of women in the energy sector face discrimination, hence the need to introduce this initiative to equip them for the job market, the director said, adding that despite efforts at promoting women in STEM programmes in schools, only few women took up courses at the tertiary level.

Samuel Afram, Access Project Manager, MiDA, in a remark, said eight markets in the Greater Accra and Northern Regions had been selected to regularise their energy connectivity, while illegal connections would be replaced with appropriate wiring to aid proper economic activities.

Also, high voltage consumption bulbs would be replaced with LED ones.